FAQ

FAQ til Bedriftsstøtte Ukraina 

1. Is there a deadline for submitting the applications?

A: No, all applications will be accessed on an ongoing basis, as long as there are funds available. 

2. Who can apply?

A: Any commercial organisations may apply. The applicant must be a legal commercial company. Please note that neither holding, investment, consulting companies, nor equipment suppliers, are eligible for support. 

3. What does the application process look like?

A: Applicants will first be asked to submit a short concept (four pages, PDF format, uploaded to Norad’s grants portal) note and confirm that they meet the grants scheme’s minimum criteria to qualify for support. Successful applicants will then subsequently be invited to submit full applications, and fully document the business case. No applicant is entitled to support until the applicant successfully makes it through both stage 1 (concept note) and stage 2 (full application). Unsuccessful applicants will be notified as soon as possible. 

4. What are the minimum requirements?

Applicants will in the concept note need to confirm that the following minimum criteria are met to qualify for support under the scheme in the first stage:

• The applicant must be a legal entity registered as a commercial company. As previously indicated, please note that neither holding, investment, consulting companies, nor equipment suppliers, are eligible for support. 
• The applicant must have financial capacity to implement the supported project as well as the main project (main investment). 
• The applicant must document a turnover of at least NOK 5 million from commercial activities in at least one of the last three financial calendar years. The applicant must present audited accounts for the last two available financial calendar years. The criterion does not apply where applicants can document a market capitalisation of minimum NOK 10 million. 
• The applicant must have considerable ownership and involvement in the implementation of the main project. The applicant must own minimum 25 % of the equity in the planned main investment.  
• The applicant must have the necessary professional and administrative expertise to implement the project. 
• The applicant must demonstrate good insight into the issues concerned and must have set clear, achievable objectives for the project(s). 
• The applicant has good systems and routines for risk management and internal control. This includes systems and procedures for the prevention, detection and managing suspicions of corruption and mismanagement. 
• The applicant has a Code of Conduct or similar ethical guidelines. As a minimum such guidelines must include principles and routines to prevent, detect and address sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SEAH). The applicant must confirm and document the existence of such guidelines. See guidance for the preparation of ethical guidelines for Norad's grant recipients.   
• The applicant must confirm that it is aware of and conforms to the UN’s guiding princples on business and human rights and the OECD’s guidelines for multinational enterprises. This confirmation should be based on the exercise of heightened due diligence for conflict affected areas in line with existing international standards (https://www.undp.org/publications/heightened-human-rights-due-diligence-business-conflict-affected-contexts-guide). 
• The applicant must confirm that sufficient security assessments will be carried out for its own employees, and the necessary measures are taken for, for example, training, own guidelines, insurances and equipment.  
• The applicant must have established close ties with potential partners. Information about partners must be provided. 
• The project must be in line with the objectives of the grant scheme mentioned above and must seek to address a specific and defined need. 
• The project must comply with the OECD/DAC criteria for ODA support. 

Please note that failing to meet the minimum criteria will result in the application being rejected automatically. There is no recourse to not meeting the minimum criteria. 

5. What should be included in the application?

A: Your application must include the documentation and answer to the specific points mentioned in the call, such as but not limited to budget and financial capacity, expected results and how the activities will support the main activity. Norad suggests the applicant to include the following information in this order when submitting the concept note: 

• A short description of the main activities that will be supported by the grant. The project’s relevance for the target group should be clearly justified (1 page). 
• A brief proposal of how the activities support and relate to the business case of the main project, including financial capacity and competence to implement the main project (1- 1½ page), based on a positive feasibility study where applicable.  
• Yearly budget and the applicant’s ability to co-finance minimum 30% of the supported activity. The budget may be presented in local currency, but need to reflect the requested amount in NOK (½ page) 
• Expected results on the supported activity and scalability (½ page) 
• Possible partners to the project, both public and private and their contribution when relevant (½ page) 

6. What types of activities can be supported?

A: The following types of project activities may be supported: 

• Feasibility studies for establishment of new projects as well as expansion of existing projects 
• Pilot production as part of a feasibility phase for establishment of business  
• Guarantee and risk premiums for financing. See section 5A for more information. 
• Ancillary costs for basic local, public infrastructure and investments required for the realisation of the main project. For these types of costs, grants may constitute up to 80% of incurred costs. 
• If required for a successful establishment, vocational training of local staff related to the establishment of business, including gender-based actions to enable women to acquire skills in high-demand sectors as per the National Strategy for Bridging the Gender Pay Gap until 2030. 

7. What types of activities can NOT be supported?

A: No funding may be provided for: 

• Sales and marketing activities. 
• Administrative costs beyond the administrative costs directly associated with the project. 
• CAPEX investment beyond 20 % of the total cost of a pilot project 
• Projects that involve weapons or other military material. 
• Projects that involve drugs, alcoholic drinks, and tobacco.  
• The main investment subject of a feasibility study. 

8. The call for grant states that a call for proposals under the grant scheme for Ukraine and neighbouring countries - can we apply for support of the business development in other countries? 

No. The purpose of the call is to foster investment-ready projects that could underpin economic activity in Ukraine only. While some supported activities, such as consultancy, may occur outside of Ukraine, the main business project and future business activity must take place within Ukraine's territory (except the occupied territories). 

9. Is there minimum grant amount for each project? 

A: Yes, the minimum grant amount will be NOK 1,000,000. Applications for amounts under NOK 1,000,000 will be rejected. 

10. Has Norad allocated a specific amount for this call for proposals or decided in advance on how many projects to support?

A: No, this will depend on the quality of the applications. 

11. Can we meet to discuss my project?

A: No. Norad has limited capacity to meet potential applicants to provide guidance in the application process. Furthermore, we cannot comment on draft applications or discuss the substance of a project in a manner that would distort the competition between applicants. We do our best to answer concrete questions by email and we aim to publish our answers to frequently asked questions on this website.  

Norad will hold an information meeting on 8. August 2024 for all interested parties where we will try to provide as much information as possible and answer the questions. Please visit our webpage for more information.